This is about your Astoria (RIP) or Brixton Academy sized bands who did well enough that they could live off their music for a couple of years, but were never massive and needed to get a 'regular' job after their band disbanded because the won't make much/anything from ongoing royalties.

For example, Sean recently posted that the lead singer/guitarist of Gay Dad, Cliff Jones, is a music lecturer at Bath Spa University.

More recently, I used to work at Barclays HQ in Canary Wharf a few years back. One day I recognised the guitarist from Part Chimp in the canteen. I went over and had a chat with him, and he was working on Barclays IT systems (and, I imagine, earning a decent wage). I assuem he's probably still doing something similar.

He's a music librarian at Sky. Just goes by Patrick these days. Seems like much, much less of a bellend than his unfortunate TV appearances made him appear. That was actually a bit of a letdown. Still not averse to wearing leather jackets to work, though.

I've been at the Barclays HQ for a few years and have never bumped into anyone from Part Chimp (sob...) but swear someone from Vincent Vincent and the Villains used to spend his lunchbreak under the building in the library...!

work in an office with the drummer from black (from the 70s/80s) who had the one hit wonder 'wonderful life' i think tis called that anyway, most people know the song and he drummed on the song and album but gets balls all from it. his friend the actual singer/songwriter though makes a small fortune apparently

Larry is the guitarist/writer/producer with the band HUNDRED REASONS. He produced the band's last two albums and has been working as a co-writer/producer with various acts over the past 2 years.

He has his own room in Studio B of Artspace Studio in Brixton (www.artspacestudio.co.uk). It's a versatile set up in which he can accomodate everything from simple writing sessions to full live recordings and mixing.

Johnny Dean does NOT work in a mobile phone shop. I'm not exactly how he bides his time these days, but he seems to live comfortably with his girlfriend and their cats. My friend met up with them for a drink once. Nice couple!

Mark Ibold has apparently become a Haute Cuisine chef in the time after their split (so that's why he went on tour with sonic youth!), Bob Nastovich had a stable of racing horses in Kentucky, though he was quite honest about having gambling debts around the time of the reunion.

Louise Wener (vocals) became a writer after the band split up, publishing 4 novels. To supplement her income, she teaches novel writing and how to play poker.

Jon Stewart (guitar) is now a Senior Academic Lecturer at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music, and occasional columnist for the Guardian.

Diid Osman (bass) works in artist management and used to look after My Vitriol and Hell Is For Heroes.

Andy Maclure (drums) started a Punk Rock Karaoke night with Steve Lamacq, in which fans sing with a live band. His dayjob is Head of Artist Development and Drum Tutor at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music.

working in the polar bear in Farringdon. He was really nice about me mentioning it. UNLIKE the tosser who works in the practise studios behind Denmark place. He was in Byker grove and *does not* want to talk about it.

Erstwhile post-rock threesome? So one became Four Tet, another became Adem, currently half of Silver Columns.

But drummer, Sam, got a series of proper (well, proper-ish) jobs. He did some web design stuff, went to Harvard to get his clever on, and came back an uber digital strategy dude. He's now in charge of strategy at a campaigning agency. Worked with him a few years ago. I was the only one who recognised him :-)

my old band used to practice at that school. Steve let us use it in the evenings, but I had no idea who he was until I mentioned we sounded a bit like Nick Cave - at which point he mentioned that he knew him. I thought he meant 'knew' as in 'was aware of' but then he went on to explain how he'd been in The Fall for twenty years and they'd hung out a bit.

They all seem to be in education. One is a uni professor and the other a maths teacher. If you watch a few of their youtube videos, kids from the drummers (or bassits) class comment on it. I can imagine them sitting down, reflecting to a pool of kids, about their days in Adorable.

was a good mate of mine at school in Cov. Last saw him at the Cure's Finsbury Park gig in 2002 and he is indeed working as a teacher in Edinburgh and snowboarding in his spare time. Last time I saw him before that was at a wedding in 1998, we got totally leathered & he got rather irate at Creation forgetting about Adorable (and the Boo Radleys) & spunking all their cash on Oasis.

John Andrew was Technology Manager for Asia. Used to see him in the lifts at Bush House all the time. I'm not sure if he was aware that people still remembered him. I think he's gone on to do more consultancy work with broadcast and video content
delivery etc. Can't really see him jacking it in.

There's no reason why mid-level indie singers working in ordinary (and probably slightly better paid) jobs should be a source of tragedy. They're probably perfectly happy with their lot but when you're a fan you kinda hope they would never have to.

• Gareth from Los Campesinos! also works at a church and cemetery as a gardener. He does this at the moment, and seems to enjoy it.

BLOC PARTY
• Kele from Bloc Party worked at a movie theatre in London. Babak from Wet Paint also worked with Kele at the same movie theatre.
• Gordon from Bloc was a graphic designer until mid-2005. He designed all of the old BP web pages.

There are tons I know about band members who used to work in certian players. Not awfully interesting, though.

When the Boston Phoenix did its Britpop issues last summer, I wrote the "where are they now" article. Some of the highlights included:

-Former Menswear members managing bands like Phoenix (already mentioned above)
-Drummer from These Animal Men becoming a drum tech and stage manager for bands like the Dirty Pretty Things
-Donna Matthews from Elastica is now a born-again Christian working in music therapy

These ones didn't make it into my article, but:
-Toby Slater from Catch (£100 for diet Coke Catch) now runs a sex club in London. Considering the guy's teenage "hit" single was about losing his virginity, this never fails to make me laugh.
-Dominic Chad from Mansun is an ambulance driver in London.

Bingo's not about losing virginity, it's about... going to a London sex club! One of those in Soho that was hot with the middle-market press for a while in the early 90s because they'd promise shows, not deliver and then not let patrons leave without paying huge amounts for one drink.

I've lost the list now, but all of Heavenly had high flying jobs. One of them helped compile the OED, and of course the keyboard player presented Scrapheap Challenge and ran the production company that made it.

Michael Gerald from Killdozer was a commercial lawyer during early Killdozer...an EVIL BUSINESS LAWYER.. while he was in the only openly communist (as in paid up members of ACP) band in America. He is still a very succesful commercial lawyer.

Santiago Durango is a celebrity laywer.

erm apart from that, David WM Sims is an accountant.

Bassist ffrom Fudge Tunnel is an accountant too when he appeared on that lineup on Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

FDK Kitchens in Prestwich is amost entirely operated by former members of the Fall.

Al who used to be in Tindersticks worked for AV services where I work and a former member of the Byrds works in my dept sometimes.

That tall one from Electralene was a summer vacation worker here couple years back too.

I briefly worked with a guy who went by 'Toni Tambourine', who claimed to be the percussionist in D-Ream. I met him at Bestival and he later gave me work at Defected Records, where he was (and probably still is) Head of Press & PR. Nice chap

For a while Bob Mould had a job as a scriptwriter for WCW, in the liner notes for Modulate he thanks Kevin Nash

and some more

Satan who drummed for Cradle of Filth now works at Beggars group.
Mike who drummed for Women ran a business painting houses in Calgary before joining porcelain raft.
Mookie from Gengis Tron now manages bands such as Lower Dens, Pictureplane and Deradorian.
Tim from help she can't swim puts on shows in London under the name Bird on the Wire.
Issac Brock of Modest Mouse did A&R for subpop for a while, and was responsible for signing wolf parade.

who has been working at Brighton Institute of Modern Music which is responsible for loads of people walking about Brighton and Hove with guitars strapped to their backs hoping to be the next big thing. They are also very responsible for The Kooks.

and listening to Danny from Embrace talk about working on a building site after being dropped by EMI, then releasing a new album, getting up in the morning, hearing on the radio that the album had got to number one, and still going to work.

Following the split, three of the members returned to education. Marshall studied International Relations at the University of Toronto. He now lives in Guadalajara, Mexico and writes for the newspaper, Guadalajara Reporter. Chow studied Graphic Design at the University of Plymouth. McGloin began a degree in PPE at Oxford University in 2006, whilst Bromley worked as a website designer and is a member of the Church of Scientology.

but Davy Cicero http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mBS-9KP7_A got ripped off by the Pet Shop Boys and now works for Sky TV in their call centre. A couple of years ago there a remix of that track was was big new in the Italian clubs so he got a few decent weekends away out of it.